All the talk heading into Friday night’s series opener between the Red Sox and Padres was centered around Xander Bogaerts. Despite all the focus on the former Red Sox, it was Rafael Devers who was the star of the show for Boston.
The Red Sox All-Star third baseman went 2-for-4 with two home runs and he drove in four RBIs in the 6-1 rout of the Padres.
Devers' first homer was a solo shot off left-hander Blake Snell that traveled 397 feet over the right field fence. His second homer came off a 3-1 slider that Devers crushed 435 feet over the center field wall. Devers joins Yankees slugger Aaron Judge for the second-most home runs in the American League with 13.
“Right now I feel comfortable at the plate, and I feel very good but we need to see what’s going to happen in the next few games,” Devers said through a team translator after the game. “But, yeah, I feel very comfortable at home plate.”
This was Devers' 14th career multi-homer game and the second this season. Snell had only allowed one home run in his previous 12 outings which dated back to last season. The six earned runs given up by the left-hander was the most he’s surrendered this season.
“Very happy today that I was able to hit two home runs,” Devers said to reporters postgame. “This is baseball. We have to take it day by day and we have to keep doing adjustments every day.”
Devers is now hitting .264 with 46 hits, 12 doubles (one shy of 200 for his career), 13 homers, 44 RBIs and a .557 on-base percentage.
Alex Cora was impressed by the at-bats Devers and the rest of the lineup put together in the win.
“He put together two great swings,” Cora said. "But around him, everybody put together great at-bats. That was impressive. We were grinding at-bats and fouling off pitches, staying on pitches, and taking our walks. It was a fun inning.”
Bogaerts left the Red Sox in free agency back in December after signing an 11-year, $275-million deal with the Padres. The superstar went hitless against his former team going 0-for-4 with one strikeout just missed an opportunity on dropping a hit into right field. Alex Verdugo had other thoughts and made a great diving catch robbing his former teammate of extra bases.
James Paxton made his second start of the season and was terrific earning his first win as a member of the Red Sox. He recorded his last win as a member of the Yankees on August 15 where he defeated the Red Sox.
The southpaw was coming off an impressive start against the Cardinals last Friday.
Paxton tossed six innings, allowing one run, five hits and two walks while striking out five. The only run surrendered came off the bat of Fernando Tatis Jr. in the third inning when he took him deep for a solo homer.
The only other time Paxton was in trouble in the game was in the fourth inning. He opened the inning by getting Juan Soto to pop out but then struggled with his command and allowed Nelson Cruz and Jake Cronenwoth to single and walked catcher Austin Nola. Paxton settled down and collected himself by getting Adam Engel to pop out, squandering a golden opportunity to get back into the game.
“I just didn’t really have the command tonight so it really had to work back and forth with soft stuff,” Paxton said postgame to reporters as seen on NESN. “Wong did a great job behind the plate mixing speeds and keeping those guys off balance and the guys are making good plays in the field as well"
The veteran left-hander threw 107 pitches, 66 of them for strikes. Paxton threw 62 four-seam fastballs and topped out at 98 mph, per Baseball Savant.
Paxton has been superb over two starts only allowing three runs in just 11 innings.